Space dyeing of fibre or yarn is a particularly attractive way of producing fibre or yarn for many purposes, such as for the production of carpets or textiles, and for use in hand and machine knitting.
Although the desirability of producing the space dyed fibre or yarn has long been recognised there has in the past been particular technical difficulties in producing it economically in commercial quantities. In particular, when wool has been a component of the yarn and when the yarn has to be suitable for the preparation of carpets, there have been considerable difficulties in achieving successful penetration of dye into the yarn so that the dye colours the yarn right through and is not merely a superficial colouration. There have also been difficulties in ensuring that clean bands of colour are produced which do not overlap with each other and in the subsequent removal of moisture there have been problems with cross-staining of the product. Efforts have been made over many years to eliminate these problems, but until now no completely successful process has been devised.